Any discussion of prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
A hybrid optical code scanner includes a laser scanner and an imaging scanner. The two scanners are used to independently read optical codes such barcodes presented to the scanner. The laser scanner reads a barcode by sweeping a laser beam across the barcode, capturing data representing the reflected laser light, and then processing the captured data. An imaging scanner reads a barcode by capturing a complete image of the barcode and then processing the image.
When a barcode is presented to the imaging scanner, the barcode generally faces away from the operator and toward the imaging scanner. Even if the imaging scanner projects targeting marker beams that identify where to place the barcode (the sweet spot), the barcode or the item the barcode is attached to will block the operator's view of the beams. This makes the image scanning process essentially a blind operation.
To complicate the process, the size of the preferred imaging location (sweet spot) can be small and its exact location is not intuitive to the operator. The combination of not knowing where to present a barcode and not being able to see targeting the marker beams, significantly reduces scan performance and reduces the shopping experience for the operator. The operator is typically a customer but could be an employee.
Therefore, there is a need for a hybrid optical code scanner that provides an effective way to properly align optical codes with an imaging scanner of the hybrid optical code scanner.